Booms tours site of wind turbines

Published 8:00 pm, Tuesday, July 19, 2005

BAD AXE Huron County Commissioner Don Booms came away from a tour of a wind farm in Fenner, N.Y. last March impressed with what he saw and not very worried about things like noise and shadow flicker from the turbines.

By JOSH FAHLSING

Booms taped portions of the trip and showed the tape at a meeting of the Huron County Board of Commissioners shortly after arriving home. On that tape, it was easier to hear the crunch of snow under his feet than the noise from the windmills.

Last week at Ubly Heights Golf & Country Club, Dan Guza showed a tape of his own. This tape, showing wind farms from Pennsylvania and Fenner, contradicted what Booms had seen when he was part of the county's contingent that visited Fenner.

"I attended the meeting held by concerned citizens and watched a video that concerned me," Booms said Tuesday during the board's committee meeting of the whole. "The windmills on that film were terribly noisy, and that scared me."

Booms said he felt obligated to verify what he saw in person in March, so Friday evening after work he jumped in his truck and set off for Fenner. He arrived around 2:30 a.m. Saturday and parked his truck in a hay field, about 650 feet from the nearest turbine.

"I started doing some more taping and got different views," Booms said. "I did not observe the noise I observed on that tape."

Booms said he had no problems falling asleep in the cab of his truck, and when he awoke around 5 a.m. he again began taping. This time, Booms was interested in seeing any shadow flicker created by the windmills' blades.

"At that point it was clear it was going to be a cloudy day," Booms said. "So I drove into town."

Booms spent the rest of the day talking to residents at different distances from the turbines and taking more film.

"Nobody said they loved it," Booms said. "But nobody had particular problems with it either."

Booms stopped to talk to a sheriff's deputy, who told him he'd never received a complaint regarding the windmills.

He drove up to a dairy farm and found the landowner, Russell Stone, who also was a member of the local planning commission. Stone had a contract with a wind energy company and had a windmill on his land.

"He seemed satisfied with what they have," Booms said. "He said the township gets $7,500 per year, per turbine, and the school district gets some cash, too."

Stone told Booms the only problem he had was early on with people walking through his field to look at the windmills. He said he pushed the energy company to pay for a fence around his property, and that solved the problem.

The standard contract the wind energy companies enter into with landowners includes a provision which doesn't allow the landowners to speak negatively in public about the project. Booms said he asked Stone if he was just following the wording in his contract.

Booms said he next spoke with a man who lived in a trailer near one of the turbines, but who did not have a contract with the energy company. This gentleman told Booms the day was a pretty average day. He said the turbines make slightly more noise on days with heavy winds, and he told Booms shadow flicker did occur, but only for a few minutes each day.

"He was not getting paid by the company. He was getting nothing," Booms said. "What most impressed me, was this was just an average Joe giving an honest opinion."

Booms said the man compared the noise to the sound of a clothes dryer running in the house.

Booms did run into a woman who was not as positive as the others. He said she had clear issues with the company, and told Booms she wasn't getting paid enough. She told Booms the company lied to her, and made a comment that the project was "tearing the neighborhood apart and straining relationships." She also said she'd had a problem with people trespassing on her property.

"She said her neighbor had a problem with strobing," Booms said. "It sounded like she had more problems with the company than with the windmills themselves."

Booms said from there he went to a spot that was about 2 miles from the nearest turbine. He found a woman cutting her grass who said she's far enough away that she doesn't hear the turbines at all. He said this woman told him she'd heard grumbling from surrounding townships about their taxes being raised, but said the money from the windmills has helped her township keep its taxes down.

"By and large, the people seemed to be comfortable with what's there," Booms said. "For anybody who went in March, what you saw is what they are."

Booms said the windmills in Fenner are 1.5 megawatt models, the same as what's being proposed for Huron County. He said he now has several videotapes circulating throughout the community, and he hopes those will help people get a clearer picture of the project.

"I just wanted to get the information out to the people in the area so they're getting an unbiased opinion of what's going on," Booms said.